Goldie told me

The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud — the obstacles of life and its suffering. … The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life. … Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles: sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one.

7 Replies to “Goldie told me”

I read that your travels in Berlin were enjoyable but the weather a little cool at this time of year! We missed your insightful updates whilst you were away. But I did enjoy the variety in the images you posted, especially the 8th in the set…it’s got a languid intensity and feeling of sudden expectation about it, as if you are experiencing a momentary sense of precognition and are turning to witness an event just about to happen. I like the provocative nature of monochrome photography, the way it stimulates the mind by eliminating the distractions of colour…sometimes they do a much better job of portraying the real essence of a moment.

The quote, ‘If you were a flower, I’d pick you first’ offers a multitude of interpretations. That is something I like about quotes, they have this uncanny ability to carry the mind away to many distant shores and to the wonders that wait there to be found. It made me think of Freedom as much as it made me think of Love, but upon reflection, perhaps these two are just simply one and the same and indivisible in our human nature?

Hi Akosmopolite,

As always you are more than generous with your beautiful words. Thank you 🙂

As virtues, the unrequited giving and receiving of Faith, Hope and Love are an individual’s most aspirational goals, but Friendship without compromise will always remain the golden child of all three.

I hope you are finding peace at the end of your difficult week. We’ll catch up soon.

Hi 🙂 sorry for late reply Been in Berlin .I don’t know where Goldie got it from But the quote sparked something in me and I thought about it thru the day so I ended up posting it.Your words are powerfull as always .I Appriciate your sharing /Simon

Was this a film quote or taken from another source? It’s an academic question really, in as much that it doesn’t detract from the depth of meaning in the quote, which I think goes a lot deeper than Goldie perhaps realises. Does she have an association with Eastern philosophy?

Why is it do you think that people seek so often to take the path of least resistance believing that the outcome offers something more substantial than the effort, sacrifice and compromises needed to endure the journey?

What reward is there in arriving at an ending with a given set of answers when one hasn’t even sought to ask the right question in the beginning? How can one ‘know’ when there is no experience of ‘knowing?’

I see this happening all the time in the world: a world still so subservient to a culture of putting ‘me’ first whilst others do the hard graft and in practice therefore enable the minority to achieve success at the expense of the majority. I do not see the stratification of society as being anything other than an abdication of a person’s individual responsibilities. In business practice, it is the ‘higher ranking’ individuals who feed off the success of the lesser paid. In life it is the power brokers, bankers, lawyers, judges, who are not democratically voted into power who exploit their positions with an ‘accepted’ determination that they are above the rest of us, and in the process capitalise on their sense of elevation.

I think the quote serves to remind us that every individual must unfold through many lessons of the soul if a ‘Christing’ of the individual man is to happen. Without such lessons being learnt how might ‘awakening’ occur? And without awakening on the individual level how might an awakening of the global populous occur either?

…And then the Messenger spoke:
‘Thou must purify thyself,
Sprinkle the dust with water,
Scatter flowers in thy room.’
…And the exiled soul replied
‘When I sprinkle, I weep,
When I pray, then must I hope,
When I gather flowers, I love,
So that when my Lord comes,
I shall be beside myself.’

The Artist knows something else, wordless, oftentimes, but he knows it deep within him: that were it not for the struggle and the loneliness he undergoes in his search for integrity there would be no strength or beauty in his work. And though art is not for the sake of beauty, beauty must be there or the profound revelation the artist makes would be unbearable. The Artist is us all knows, the Poet in us all knows: it is the mark not of ordeal that gives a face, a life, a great event, or a work of art its style. The wound is there but the triumph also, the death and the birth, the pain and the deep satisfactions, it is all there in delicate equilibrium, speaking to us from within and from without. ~ Lillian Smith ~

it amazes me when people recognize the necessity of this, the need to experience hardships or challenges in life in order to grow- to become stronger, yet continually look for ways to drive the ‘other way around’ expecting the same successful outcome… c’est la vie…